Well I’ve been here for a little over a month now, and I’ve been in Takefu for almost a month. I’m still waiting for my internet connect, but I think if I don’t write this now there won’t be much point to writing it, so I’m writing it here in my room and I will go out and post from the internet connection outside later.

So anyway, upon arriving in Takefu I was greeted by Keleigh, the former foreign teacher at my Aeon branch, and Kanako, the head teacher. I was shocked by the fact that there was absolutely nobody around in Takefu! The streets were empty… Since then I have seen a few human beings here, but on any given day it can really feel like a scene out of a zombie movie. My part of town is far from rural though. It’s pretty densely built up, with shops and houses everywhere… as dense as any city, really. My apartment is 1 minute from work, the train station, the supermarket, a department store, a dollar (100 yen) store, and a McDonald’s, and a 10 minute bike ride from another big plaza with a video rental store, a 24-hour McDonald’s, KFC, and numerous other restaurants, a couple video rental shops, a library… it’s really a nice place to be. It feels *really* quiet here, so it’s hard to believe that there really are all these shops and conveniences around here, but they do exist. From my apartment, I have a nice view of the train tracks, and also a big mountain just outside my window. The tracks are right next to the river, so I’m a 1 minute bike ride from a gorgeous river park. If the weather weren’t so sweltering, it would be the perfect place to go walking and riding (I still do despite the heat).

Last week I was riding around and I found a bird store! It’s super tiny, and has about 6 parakeets, 2 lovebirds, 2 cockatiels, and a few finches. The cages for sale are *tiny*. I rode up there again today to look at the birds, and I felt really lonely to hear their voices again, so I’m really thinking I might go up tomorrow and buy a parakeet to keep me company.

Cooking here is difficult. Well, I shouldn’t say cooking here is difficult… I’m just really bad at it. I burn everything… and end up eating all my mistakes. I have a rice cooker now, which tastes like a gourmet meal compared to what I’ve been cooking… but most days I end up eating at the supermarket or McDonald’s just for convenience. Inability to read food labels and cooking instructions can severely limit one’s ability to cook, or one’s confidence to experiment with cooking (I just know the day I try will be the day I pick up the one with the “Warning: This Meat is Not For Eating, Only For Looking At” label.

Anyway, work is good. It took a bit of time to get into the swing on things… especially because I had a very very full schedule for my first 2 weeks. I really hit the ground running. I had very few breaks during the day, and they were spent scrambling about getting ready for what comes next. Now, though, my class load has lightened a bit, and I’ve gotten into the hang of things. I made two bad mistakes in my first week due to confusion, but it’s all okay now, and things feel set. I’ve even been able to relax at night instead of spending all my time preparing for the next day starting this week. It feels great! I also was able to spend my breaks this week finally cleaning up my desk area at work — there was clutter there from 3 teachers ago that hadn’t been touched — stuff from 2004! Oy! So I finally went through it all and figured out what was to keep and what was to toss. My classes have become more productive now, and my students enjoy them I think.

This past week, Andy (the foreign teacher trainer from Nagoya) came up to Takefu to check up on me, and observe a few lessons. He gave me some great advice which has already in one week helped me a great deal. Also, he said I was doing a pretty good job for a new teacher, which felt good. Then we went up to Komatsu together for the August study meeting. It was the first time I met the other foreign teachers from the Hokuriku area, although I had sent a few emails to one of them (who likes horror movies too). It was great to meet them, and I guess that lifted my spirits a bit — no longer feeling like the only foreigner in the region. There’s another study meeting in September, again up in Komatsu. Visiting Komatsu was awesome… the last time I was there was in 2004 for the Otabi Matsuri (Photos are in my blog from way back then!) and seeing the station again was cool. I know it sounds pretty lame actually… but it felt cool to be back in a place I hadn’t seen for so long. Even the convenience store and the payphone in Komatsu station brought back some memories. Wow… that really is lame.

With my newly found free time I’ve been doodling a bit. (Far from the 1 picture a week resolution I made… Hah!) I’m almost done a digital ukiyo-e-looking image of Nagoya castle, and I have a few other pictures planned to do. I’m waiting for my files to be mailed to me from home to finish up the next Philadelphia ukiyo-e as well… and a few chickens too. I’ve been making a lot of doodles for my classroom as well, and for the other teachers’ classrooms upon their requests.

Oh I finally saw Gedo Senki — the Tales from Earthsea movie done by Miyazaki’s son. Wow! It was amazing!! And tonight I rented a few more movies — old ones from America. The video rental places here have an amazing collection of old Sci Fi and Fantasy, including some things I’ve never even heard of as well as some things I haven’t seen at all since I was a little kid. It’s awesome — going to the rental shop feels like watching tv during summer vacation in middle school all over again.

Oh, and I’m posting some photos (finally) of my summer vacation — the Mikuni Fireworks Festival with Minako and Hiro, and Takefu’s Obon Festival (parade and fireworks). I’ll post them back in the What I Did On My Summer Vacation post, since that makes more sense. But here’s a nice picture of some grafiti which I can see from my window:

And you can see the rest of my photos (as I upload them anyway) on my Picasa Web Albums.